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The dot matrix was never this entertaining. Fascinating, frenetic and funny, Print the Legend follows US companies fighting it out over five years in the nascent 3D printing market. More than just a primer in an astonishing technology – promising ‘the next industrial revolution’, says one commentator – the story here is one of brilliant, flawed young entrepreneurs, idiosyncrasies and egos, bust-ups and lawsuits, high ideals and commercial compromise. Even – perhaps especially – at this new frontier of desktop manufacturing, technology is subordinate to culture and personalities. At its heart is prototypical start-up guy BrePettis. The MakerBot co-founder, hungry to become the next Steve Jobs, begins committed to independence and an ethos of sharing ideas and designs. By the end, in the eyes at least of his critics, he has sold out in just about every way. This disruptive industry also confronts a dangerous disruption of its own, in the form of Cody Wilson. A charismatic, articulate ‘information anarchist’, he is hell-bent on empowering individuals to exercise their rights through the technology: specifically, by providing instructions for printing handguns at home. — Toby Manhire

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